Jeffrey S. Berger MD, MS

Dr. Berger is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Surgery (on tenure track) with appointments in Cardiology, Hematology, and Vascular Surgery, and Director of Cardiovascular Thrombosis at New York University School of Medicine. Dr. Berger studies processes relevant to atherosclerosis, thrombosis, platelet biology and different phenotypes of cardiovascular diseases. During his training, he received a Master’s degree in clinical research from the NIH K30 program at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He completed fellowships in Cardiology at Duke University, Cardiovascular Research training at Duke Clinical Research Institute, and Vascular Medicine and Thrombosis and Hemostasis at the University of Pennsylvania.

During the early part of his career, Dr. Berger was fortunate to receive the American Heart Association (AHA) Fellow to Faculty award during his fellowship at Duke University where he investigated platelet activity and cardiovascular disease in women and men. This research led to several seminal observations about how women and men differ in their pathophysiology and outcomes of disease. Dr Berger then received grants from the Doris Duke Foundation and an AHA Clinical Research Program investigating different measurements of platelet activity and the effect of low-dose aspirin. He is currently conducting a study funded by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute to study platelet activity in patients with peripheral vascular disease. The goal of the study is to identify a clinically useful assessment of platelet activity for risk stratification that may be used as a diagnostic tool and a target for therapeutic intervention. The mechanism of increased platelet activity in patients with PAD is being explored using platelet transcriptomics. Dr. Berger is also the principal investigator of the basic component of a study investigating the role of platelets in women with heart attacks. In addition, Dr Berger has ongoing grants studying platelets in subjects with stable cardiovascular disease, HIV, rheumatoid arthritis, and systemic lupus erythematosus. Overall, Dr Berger has an active laboratory aimed at better understanding the role of platelet activity in vascular biology. His active collaborations across disciplines are evaluating the role of platelets as effector cells in the setting of inflammation and different phenotypes of cardiovascular disease.